In recent years, the sophistication of lighting control systems have increased significantly, for example, offering lighting scene, profile or schedule manipulation for individual lighting devices, groups of lighting devices or all lighting devices at a controlled premises. Depending on the technology of the luminaires control functions may include simple ON/OFF control, intensity control (e.g. dimming) and even control of color characteristics (e.g. for tunable white luminaires or the like). Building automation control (BAC) systems or building management systems (BMS) also have improved in the sophistication of the ability to reach every unit item or controllable appliance at the premises, offer informative, intuitive access to information and readily customizable control operations for every appliance on the premises that is adapted for BAC or BMS type networked monitoring and control functions.
The two different types of control systems typically have been implemented from and optimized for two different perspectives, lighting control and building automation control. Many, standalone lighting control systems have had little or no ability to control other types of equipment, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) components, door access controls, fire and safety equipment, on-premises surveillance equipment, etc. Building automation control or management systems typically control these other types of on-premises equipment; and although such building control systems typically offer some degree of lighting control, the lighting control capabilities have been much more limited than those of fully featured dedicated lighting control systems.
There have been attempts to combine a lighting control system and a building management system for use managing automation within a premises. Although referred to as premises, for convenience, these systems often are applied across multiple buildings and geographies. Current solutions use BACnet (standardized building automation control network) or similar high-level interfaces to exchange a limited amount of lighting data and building management system data, which in turn limits the ability of the two diverse control systems to exercise meaningful control over one another. Only simple, system-level status and control capabilities are available.
Hence a need exists for better integration between lighting control and building control or management systems.